Doctor Hoffman
by LovettRiver
Summary: The fic continues from where the film left off. Julia Hoffman, who is now a vampire, returns to Collinsport.
1. Awakening

_**So yesterday I saw the new Tim Burton film, Dark Shadows. I loved every minute of it! The very last thing we see is what inspired me to write this fic. It's from Julia Hoffman's perspective and is based entirely on the film, not on the original series. Enjoy! **_

Doctor Hoffman

Chapter One – Awakening

I open my eyes and realise that I am underwater. Shouldn't I have drowned? I try to swim and realise something was keeping me down. I see a rope tied to me that has a large rock attached to the end. Someone didn't want me to be found. I detach myself quickly and swim up to the surface. It takes a little while, as I'm pretty deep in the water.

As I swim to shore, I notice my nails. They are long, dark and pointed. Like Barnabas's. _Barnabas._ The last thing I remember is seeing him; his fangs. He'd just seen my…experiment and he wasn't happy about it. I've reached the shore now and a glance around tells me I'm alone. My mouth feels a little odd. I feel with a finger that my canines have gotten bigger and sharper. The skin visible is pale. I am what I wanted to be. _A vampire. _That explains why I didn't drown; I _can't._ Not anymore.

Suddenly, I feel a presence behind me. I turn my head and see someone approaching me from behind. I can't really see them, as it's late; the sky's gone dark and there are no visible people around except for this one and me.

"Are you alright?" A male voice asks me. The man sounds a bit concerned.

"Fine," I say, though I'm not really. I'm thirsty. Not for liquor, like the old Julia would be, but for blood.

"Come here." I order the man.  
"What?" He asks.

"Come here," I repeat, getting up from the ground; he quite stupidly obeys.

"Is every-" He begins but before he can continue, I've grabbed him.  
"Sorry," I mutter and he screams as I sink my teeth into his neck. I drink the blood that seeps from the wound and within seconds the man is dead.

I let the man go when I'm finished drinking and his lifeless body falls to the ground. I have little option but to leave him there. I don't know what people will think caused the bite wound to his neck; probably some kind of animal. I realise I don't really care. I wipe the blood from my mouth with the back of my hand and walk away.

It's not long before I reach Collinwood; or rather where it once was. There's pretty much nothing left of it. What happened? Where are Liz, Barnabas and the others? Someone _must_ know.

"Jules!" A familiar voice calls as I enter a pub, past some deserting drunk men, one of whom tries to flirt and I have to resist the urge to bite. The voice belongs to my friend Monica, the pub landlady.

"Blimey!" She says, looking at me with concern. "You're soaked! What happened? Was Piper throwing water balloons through the window again?" Piper's her nine-year-old son.  
"Yeah," I nod. "But don't worry; it's just a bit of water."

"Well, come on through to the living room a dry off a bit," She offers. "Got a message from you from that Elizabeth woman you work for."

Monica says Collinwood burnt down a couple of days ago; the family all moved to a smaller house a couple of hours away that Liz had inherited from her mother. Monica kindly lets me stay the night at hers and then drives me up to the address the next day.

"You've been a lifesaver, Monica," I tell her as I get out of the car.  
"It's no problem," She smiles. "I know you'd do the same for me." Then she drives off, calling "See you, Hoffman!" through the window as she does. I walk up to the new house, which seems awfully small compared to Collinswood. I knock on the door; Willie answers. His eyes go wide when he sees me.  
"But you're," He bumbles. "No – can't be- you're not – I saw you-"

"Nice to see you again too," I smirk. "Now, are you gonna let me through or stand there bumbling for another hour?" He moves aside, still staring at me in disbelief. I never did like him much. He could've drunk the old Julia under the table, which I guess is partly why. I've never liked competition. It's for that same reason I dislike that odd Vicky woman; though that's to do with Barnabas, not drink. Alcohol doesn't interest me much anymore now but Barnabas still does. As I enter the house, I hear Barnabas' voice coming from the stairs.  
"What's all that noise about?" He asks grumpily, emerging in his dressing gown. "I was trying to-" It's then that his eyes focus on me. They widen as he realises who I am. Liz and Vicky appear behind him.

"Doctor Hoffman!" Liz says. "At last; I see Monica gave you my message."

I nod. "Yeah; sorry I've been away so long. Business is hard work." I said, glancing at Barnabas. I had to play along with the story he'd been giving everyone about my whereabouts, as stupid as it sounded.  
"No worries," Liz half-smiles. "Vicky, do you mind showing Doctor Hoffman around the new home so she knows where everything is?"

Vicky doesn't get much of a chance to speak before Barnabas cuts in and offers to do it instead.


	2. Confrontation

_**I was pleasantly surprised at how many favourites, reviews and alerts this got from you guys! Thanks so much! I really appreciate it! The exam season's starting and I'll still try and update this and my THG fic as often as I can but it may take a little bit to do so. I apologise if it does. I also apologise for the shortness of this. I didn't plan on it being so short but hopefully the things to come in future chapters will make up for this. **_

Chapter Two – Confrontation

We're only in the first room when Barnabas corners me in a similar way to the way he did the last time I saw him.

"You're dead," He says plainly. "I killed you."

"You thought you did," I correct him. "The experiment must have worked."

"That 'experiment' is why I can't forgive you. Still, you're one of my kind now. I guess we sort of have to stick together." He admits with a sigh. "Victoria's one of us too."

"You turned her?" I ask, surprised.

"I had no choice," Barnabas explains, moving from the corner to a nearby table. We're in what must be the lounge. "It was either that or I'd never see her again." I'm not totally sure what he means by that but I nod to show I understand that there wasn't much else he could do. Then, I move towards the door and ask him:

"Well, are you gonna show me around this house or what?"

He half-smiles, nods and picks up a newspaper he'd been glancing at from the table. "Yes, but before we do, just so you know, if and when Vicky and I feed, we've agreed to be careful about how we get rid of the body." He tosses the newspaper at me. "I advise you do the same." On the front page of the newspaper's a report of the body of a man being found, the same man I killed. I look at Barnabas again and nod.

"Okay, I will."

"Good," He smiles. "And for the record, Julia, you didn't have to become like me to be beautiful. You already were." We both smiled at each other for the moment, Barnabas' smile a little smaller than mine, before he lead the way. I followed, pretty sure my cheeks had regained colour.

"What's the plan about Collinswood?" I ask at breakfast the next day.

"We plan on rebuilding it in a couple of weeks," Liz explains. "Roger's offered to help out…"

"No," David cuts in. "I don't think he should have anything to do with it."

"I agree with Master David." Barnabas says.

"It's okay, I declined anyway," Liz says with an assuring smile at David. She must have noticed the confusion that probably shows on my face then because she adds, "Roger left the day after you did and isn't coming back. He could have taken David with him but didn't."

"He's a rubbish dad," David grumbles. Everyone stays silent, even Liz, who's Roger's sister. I think everyone knows David deserves a better father than he has. "Always was. Even Mom thinks so." That's the first time David's mentioned seeing his mother since I was reunited with the family. I think Roger would have been a better dad if his mother was still around. Then again, according to David, she still is.

"Have you been seeing her lately?" I ask David and every head turns to the young boy. Normally Liz's daughter Carolyn would make some remark about 'encouraging the nutjob' but this time, causing her cousin to retaliate. This time, however, the girl stays silent. A lot happened while I was 'on business', so there's probably an explanation behind this, but I don't pry.

"Not at all after Collinswood burnt down," He explains. That's what I guessed he would say and what the others were hoping for. "Not long after that, she said she could rest in peace now."

"Well that's good," Vicky says and everyone nods in agreement. Things seem to be getting better. David's free of the ghost that had been haunting him throughout his childhood and Carolyn seems to respect him more now. Not only that but Collinswood is about to be rebuilt and, knowing Liz and Barnabas, it'll be greater and grander than ever before.


	3. Curiosity Saves The Doctor

_**I apologise for how long this has taken! Exams, right? I've finished them now though, so I'll have LOADS of free time, in which I intend to work on this and my Hunger Games fic as much as I can. I had a bit of writer's block while writing this but soon an idea came to me and I was able to finish the chapter, as well as have plans for what to write in the others. I'm so happy with all the reviews, favourites and alerts you guys gave this story. Thanks so much. I love you all3**_

_**I hope you enjoy Chapter Three!**_

Chapter Three - Curiosity Saves The Doctor

Barnabas, Vicky and I came to a new conclusion today – that we had to be especially careful now there were three of us around. We would be more likely to catch the attention of the authorities when we feed when there are more of us. So we came up with a pretty much fool-proof way of doing so. A person doesn't die when attacked by a vampire until they are drained of blood. Biting and drinking a small amount of blood wouldn't kill them, though of course we couldn't just leave it at that for them to go telling everybody what happened; but we can make them forget. Vampires have that ability.

"You've changed," David concludes a little later when he and I are alone in the living room.

"You really think so?" I ask, trying to sound surprised. I know that I've changed, but David doesn't know what happened, nor does he need to.

"Yeah," David nods. "You're paler and you don't drink alcohol like you used to." He indicates behind me. He just goes to continue when Liz's voice interrupts him from upstairs:

"David! Come and tidy your room please."  
"Alright," He calls back and with a sigh, leaves the room. I look to where he was indicating and see an almost empty small bottle of beer. Almost empty because there was a slither of beer at the bottom of the bottle; I'm guessing Willie drunk the rest. Him and I never got on really but I think it's because he reminded me too much of myself, in a way. I get up and walk over to the bottle. I haven't drunk alcohol since I returned as a vampire. I haven't really had the desire to drink anything since then, other than blood. I swallow and decide to see how it tastes to me now. I lift up the bottle and the smell of the wine fills my nostrils. I recall I used to like the smell but now it smells rather odd to me. I put the bottle into my mouth and tip it and the slither of beer at the bottom runs down the bottle and into my mouth.

I quickly remove the bottle from my mouth and splutter. Ugh, it tastes revolting! I drop the bottle to the floor and wipe my mouth and when I go to retrieve the bottle, I notice it's knocked what must have been a couple of rather loose floorboard out of place. I see a small glow underneath, which fascinates me. I pick the bottle up and place it on the table and I realise some of the other floorboards move rather easily too. Curiously, I pull them from the floor and soon I've made a gap that I can just about fit hrough. I peer in and see that the glow's getting wider and more intense. Then I feel as if I'm being pulled in to the gap by something and soon I've toppled into the glow.

I land on a hard floor and as I look around, I realise I'm in Collinwood, the very room Barnabas bit me in. But this is impossible! Collinwood burnt down! then notice something that makes me gulp. My eyes are on the rather oblivious, orange-haired woman on the bed, reading while wires attached to her arm pump vampire blood into her veins. The woman is me and the time I got bitten is about to happen all over again. I've gone back in the past.

I know I should warn the past me about what's going to happen. If I did, I'd be stopping it. However, before I get a chance to, I already hear Barnabas heading this way. I'm too late.

"We must intensify our efforts!" He says. The past me is still oblivious to the fact I'm here, so I crawl and hide behind the equipment that I used in storing Barnabas' blood beforehand, as that's the only way I can keep myself from view.

"I have urgent need to be human" Barnabas says. I hear the door open and can't see anything but neither of them seems to have noticed me yet.

"I can explain!" The past me says quickly.

"My God," Barnabas says, shocked. "You're not using your blood to make me human - you're using _my_ blood to make _yourself immortal_!"

"Yes, but," The past me says and I hear her getting up from the bed. "Barnabas, you have a gift." She puts a hand on the metal drip equipment and moves it along a little, saying, "It isn't fair to keep it all to yourself."

"The Collins family took you in!" He begins to move slowly towards the past me. "They bestowed their sacred trust upon you and you _brazenly_ betrayed that trust!"

"I'm sorry," The past me pleads. "I just don't want to grow old! I wanna be beautiful!" Barnabas is still moving closer and she backs away from him, the blood drip still connected to her arm. "I-I wanna live forever, like you!"

"I'm afraid that is out of the question," Barnabas says and now Julia from the past is getting close to the wall. She's quite close to my hiding place but is only looking at Barnabas, who is also close to me.. "A good man contains some five quarts of blood, which, if you'll forgive the boast, I can consume in a mere seven and a half seconds." They've both walked past me now and Barnabas has got Past Julia backed up against the wall. I swallow, as I know soon he's going to bite. I want to do something, as I believe the reason I was sent here was to stop this, but what can I do?

"But you, my dear little wisp," Barnabas continues. "I dare say I shall drink you to a withered husk in less than _five_!"

"Please don't kill me!" Past Julia pleads. "You're a good man! You're a gentleman! Please…please..." He's so close to biting her now and neither of them has noticed that I've stood up from where I was hiding. "Madam," Barnabas says. "I am neither good, nor gentle and I do not f-"

"Hey!" I cry and he looks at me. He's stunned for a moment but then his eyes become wide and unblinking because I've raised my hand and hypnotised him. "Forget what you saw," I tell him. "Leave. Go find Vicky, understand?"  
Barnabas nods, turns on his heel and walks out of the room. The other Julia, who's fangs are now visible, is looking at me, stunned.

"W…h…how…?" She asks.

"I found a way back from the future." I explained.

"The future?" She asks. "You mean he wasn't gonna kill me?"

"No, he thought he was," She said. "But he was too late."

"Y-you mean…I'm im-immortal?"

"Yeah," I nod. "But you'd be dead for a few days if I hadn't stopped him."

She moved from the wall and removed the blood from her arm.

"Where are you going?" I ask her.

"To find Angelique," She told me, before walking out of the door. I was about to call after her and ask why but something told me I already knew the answer. Angelique ran the Angel Bay Fishery and I knew she had something against Barnabas. I was sure that this version of me was going to go and team up with Angelique – and kill Barnabas.


End file.
